Improve Customer Retention & Referrals with Follow-Up

Filed Under Pet Business Tips |

Newsletter Templates This is the final post in my Customer Relations article series. In this series I have led you from the first customer contact, through performing the service for the customer, and finally collecting customer feedback. Here are links to the previous posts:

Making a Positive First Impression

How to Guarantee Confident Customers

The Key to Creating Customer Loyalty.

How to Get Honest Customer Feedback

To ensure that you nurture the great relationship that you have created with your new customer by using these steps it is important that you consistently keep in touch with them. There are many ways to follow up with customers - some ideas include postcards (get free ones at Vistaprint), customer appreciation gifts, and newsletters. Newsletters are my favorite method of follow up as they allow you to keep in touch on a regular schedule and can also be used to provide customers with value by giving them useful information.

Sending customers a monthly newsletter keeps your business name at the front of their mind and lets them learn more about you and your business. When I started my business I mailed a paper newsletter that I created in Word on my computer and printed and copied at my local Kinkos. This is very simple way to produce a newsletter but I found it a very time consuming and costly process as my customer base grew.

Now I send out a newsletter via email using Aweber - an online contact management program. Aweber allows customers and anyone else interested in my business to sign up using an opt-in form on my website. Aweber then puts their name onto a mailing list and when I send out my newsletter automatically sends it to everyone on my subscription list. Aweber also has newsletter templates that makes it easy to format your newsletter to look professional. To take a look at my newsletter just opt-in at my website and you’ll get the next issue.

Now you may be asking what you will put in your newsletter to keep the interest of your customers. Here are a few ideas:

1. Highlight changes or improvements to your service

2. Profile new employees or contractors

3. Local or national pet news (can be found easily on the internet)

4. Seasonal Pet Care Tips

5. Pet Treat Recipies

6. Tell them about training or seminars you have attended

7. Profiles of other local pet professionals (maybe even swap profiles with another local pet care professional and have them profile you in their newsletter)

8. Pet training tips

9. Pet health information

10. Local pet events

If you need more help with topics or how to write and structure a newsletter I would also recommend Michael Greens How To Write a Newsletter Toolkit.

Make your newsletters very personal and write as if you are talking to your customer. Your customers will appreciate that you are giving them information to help them better care for their pets. By becoming a consistent source of valuable pet information will position youself as the person that they will go to when they need help to solve any pet care problems.



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1 Comment so far

  1. Pet Health August 6, 2007 9:23 pm : Pet Health on October 27, 2007 12:31 am

    [...] Improve Customer Retention & Referrals with Follow-Up 7. Profiles of other local pet professionals (maybe even swap profiles with another local pet care professional and have them profile you in their newsletter). 8. Pet training tips. 9. Pet health information. 10. Local pet events … [...]

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